The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1887-03-26
For THE UNIvERsALIsT.
A TRIBUTE TO A MOTHER.
BY EDWIN A. VAN CISE.

Dear friends,-Bear with me while ]
write few words of one whom living,
came near the sin of worshiping, and in
whose death I met the greatest sorrow
Of my life. I ask space, not for an obit-
uary notice, but for simple tribute to
the memory of one, who for many years
was constant reader of this paper
q devoted friend OF the Universalist
church, it's literature and its ministry
and acquainted with many of its mem
bers throughout Iowa and the West.
Mrs. Maria NJ. Van else died at Mt. Pleas
ant, Ia, after lingering illness, in April
last. This notice may seem tsrdy, at
least to her friends, some of whom are
now for the first time informed of the
sad event; but she, abiding now in fairer
fields and caring not that words be writ
ten in her praise, knows that it was not
hardness, but weakness Of hand and
heart that caused the delay. Even now,
remembering how much she loved and
was beloved, words seem SO poor to state
the lessons of her life, and he that seeks
to state them, SO weak an instrument, as
constantly before his mind comes the
sense of his irreparable loss.
The lives of the good are sermons. IL
"the heavens declare the glory of God,
and the armament showeth his handy
work, day unto day uttereth speech, and
night unto night showeth knowledge"
much more the men and women created
in his image and born of his spirit, preach
to us by their righteous living, and be-
ing dead yet speak.
Not all the worlds mobiles are titled;
not all its kings and queens are crown
ed. And on many whose titles are old
and honored, whose crowns are richly
gemmed, God has not set his sign, or
poured his wine and oil. The unnamed
hero that perishes that many may be
saved; the nurse who braves pestilence
to carry healing to the afflicted; the wife
and mother who sacrifices herself for
husband and children-these are of Gods
plaudit, "Well done, good and faithful
servant"
The debt We owe mothers can never be
paid. Their sufferings, their sacrifices,
their unseldsh surrender of personal am
bition to the wants and needs OF helpless
infancy and dependent childhood, are
without likeness in any attribute of
man. And as youth and maturity sue
cesd childhood, who ever outgrows the
limits of mothers tender anxiety; who
ever loses wholly the impress made on
his character by her companionehip and
confidence? The mystery of her love is
life-giving iii every stage of its growth
infancy blights without it; with it youth
bears brighter blossoms and manhood
tairer fruit, and even age basks in it's
memory and lengthens out his days.
She of whom write was wife and
mother-one who gave her life to family
and home, loved them with such wealth
of eve as falls not TO the lot of many
here, and left them in her death discon-
ISOLATE, had not the faith she taught in
spired them with the hope of meeting her
again, and the memory of her life and
teaching reminded them.
HE mourns the dead who lives as they desire "
She came of good English Quaker
stock, her ancestors migrating with Will
lam Penn, and her father serving as a
minister in the meeting of plain bon
nets and broad-brimmed hats. From him
she acquired that intense conscientious
ness, the love of right and hate of wrong
that distinguished her through life. The
loss of her mother in childhood was a
deep bereavement, and later this loss was
still more deeply felt, when she was COM
mitted to the tender mercies of a step
mother. But adopting early the one
Christ as an infallible Guide, and educat-
ing her conscience by his teaching and
example, she turned TO this conscience as
an ''inner light" finding approval there
for duty done, and strength to bear the
burdens often heavy for her young and
lonely life.
She married young, and at the outset
struggled with poverty, learning in the
bitter school of experience the lessons Of
economy and trugality, and though she
had already learned these-sublime pat
ienoe and faith in the overruling prov
idence of God.
Twenty years of married life were